The World Anti-imperialist Platform holds the 2022 Belgrade International Conference, “The rising tide of global war and the tasks of anti-imperialists”
The World Anti-imperialist Platform held the 2022 Belgrade International Conference at the Belgrade Fair in Belgrade, Serbia, on December 17th.
This Belgrade International Conference was conducted with the topic of “The Rising Tide of Global War” followed by the World Anti-imperialist Platform launched at the Paris International Conference in last October.
The conference was attended by 26 countries, 29 parties, political organizations and embassies from Asia, Europe and South America. (directly/video)
Under the urgent situation that the war in Ukraine is ongoing and wars in Taiwan and South Korea are imminent, the participants discussed about an aggression nature of imperialism, a danger of opportunism in anti-imperialist camp and tasks of world anti-imperialist forces. In conclusion, they announced the Belgrade Declaration.
Kim Hye Yeong, the chairperson of the international committee of the People’s Democracy Party (South Korea) hosted the conference. The conference is comprised of three sections.
IIn the first section, Joti Brar (vice president of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)), Baltic Platform (Latvia), Peter Gal (member of the CC of the Hungarian Workers’ Party), Fernandez Torre Andy (regional secretary of Galicia of the Spanish Avantgarde), Vladmir Kapuralin (representative of the international committee of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia), Mandir Jovan (secretary of international affairs of New Communist Party of Montenegro), Aleksandar Simonov (coordinator of the Department for Foreign Policy of the Levica Macedonia), Communist Party of Poland gave their speech.
Started with presentation of Saul Ortega (vice-president for International Affaris of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela), Gisela Neira (member of the CC of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action)) spoke at the 2nd section. The contributions from the Brazilian Communist Party, the Communist Party (Switzerland), the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, the Italian Communist Party, Communist Party (Italy), Milan Krajca (vice president of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia), the Observatory Institution of the US Military Alliance (Japan) and Leonid Shkolnikov (general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Belarus) were read by organizers. Klara Azhybekova (general secretary of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan), Jozef Bossuyt (representative of the Korea-is-One), Aymeric Monville (head of international department of the PRCF) followed up.
In the 3rd section, Dmitry Kuzmin (member of the Political Council of the Central Committee the Russian Communist Workers’ Party, Russia) participated by video. Yiannis Rachiotis (representative of the Platform for Independence, Greece), Dimitrios Patelis (representative of the Collective of Struggle for the Revolutionary Unification of Humanity, Greece), Aleksandar Benjanac (general secretary of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia), Bruno Drweski (head of international department of ANC, France) and Stephen Cho (Coordinator of the Corean International Forum) spoke.
At the end of the conference, the Aleksandar Đenić (the represent of the international bureau of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia) read the Belgrade Declaration: The rising tide of global war and the tasks of anti-imperialists, which most of participants agreed and signed in.
In conclusion, the host said, “In Belgrade, on Dec. 17th, 2022, today we announced historic Belgrade Declaration. Just as the international conference was held in from Paris in Western Europe to Belgrade in Eastern Europe, we hope the Paris Declaration is developed into Belgrade Declaration and spread across the whole world.”
Below the photo was taken by all participants for commemoration.
Below is full text of the Belgrade Declaration.
Belgrade Declaration: The rising tide of global war and the tasks of anti-imperialists We stand at a moment of grave peril for workers and oppressed peoples everywhere, in which the imperialist war drive is pushing us towards a third world war and a nuclear conflagration. Even as Nato’s aggression in Ukraine is failing both militarily and economically, the USA’s desperation to save its hegemonic position in the world means it cannot back down, but is instead looking for ways to expand and prolong the war. In the face of all experience, it seems that the imperialists still hope they can find a way to wear down all resistance to their rule and come out on top. As a result, we face the prospect of the Ukraine war spilling over into neighbouring countries in Europe and central Asia – and also of the outbreak of hostilities in several other theatres further east. Recent US provocations in Taiwan, alongside its ceaseless ratcheting up of tensions with the DPRK and China on every front, make this all too clear. All over eastern Europe, workers are being fed with historical falsehoods, with anticommunist and Russophobic lies, and with nationalist poison in order to groom them to participate as the next round of proxy forces if Ukraine’s supply should become exhausted. Here in the former Yugoslavia, people are faced a most blatant example of imperialism’s destructive drive for dominance over the region: Nato’s occupation of the Serbian province of Kosovo. Ever since the bloody war of destruction against Yugoslavia in 1999, Kosovo has been a hotbed of problems, where crime and drug trafficking flourish, under the total domination of Camp Bondsteel – the largest US military base outside of the USA. The conflict in Kosovo is being endlessly stoked, creating the potential for eruption at any time. Meanwhile, the puppet authorities of the so-called ‘Republic of Kosovo’ continue to terrorise the remaining Serbian population in the territory they administer. At this moment of historic importance, we, the undersigned parties, agree that the following essential points should be made clear to the masses of the world, and should guide our antiwar and anti-imperialist work: 1. That the conflicts that have already or are threatening to break out are not isolated and local affairs, but are integral parts of the USA’s drive to retain its global hegemony. 2. That the present war in Ukraine is not the result of ‘Russian aggression’ but of this western imperialist drive to war – in particular, the war drive of the USA. 3. That the war really began when the USA and its allies financed, armed and organised a fascist coup in Kiev in 2014, and that the Russian side, in its alliance with the peoples of the Donbass, is engaged in a war of self-defence and national liberation against imperialist attack. 4. That the war drives against China and the DPRK are also a result of imperialist aggression, and that, no matter who fires the first shot, if the threatened conflicts break out in Korea or Taiwan, those wars will likewise be wars of anti-imperialist self-defence and national liberation waged by the Korean and/or Chinese people. 5. That Russia and China’s ability to defend themselves and others does not indicate expansionist ambitions or imperialist economics; it is based in decades of planning for self-defence, initiated by the socialist governments of the USSR and the PRC. 6. That there is no economic data to justify characterising China or Russia as imperialist. These are countries that do not live by superexploiting or looting the world. They do not put other countries into military, technological or debt slavery. On the contrary, the beneficial terms of trade and the technological and military assistance they offer are giving smaller developing countries the chance to break out of imperialist enslavement. 7. That Russia and China are the targets of imperialist aggression because both by retaining their own independence, and by assisting other nations to gain theirs, they represent a serious threat to the imperialists’ world hegemony. 8. That the growing alliance between Russia and China offers hope to the people of the world: hope of an alternative to US domination and imperialist superexploitation. A strong anti-imperialist camp is our peoples’ best defence against the aggressive plans of the bloodthirsty Nato alliance – our best defence against the looming threat of nuclear war. 9. That antiwar activists must mobilise the masses in their countries for a campaign of active non-cooperation with the imperialist war effort aimed at sabotaging Nato’s war machinery in every way possible. We must refuse to fight in or assist Nato’s armies (direct or proxy). We must refuse to transport Nato’s men and materiel. We must refuse to allow Nato’s bases to operate unimpeded on our territories. We must refuse to manufacture or supply Nato’s armaments and other vital equipment. We must refuse to broadcast, print or distribute imperialist propaganda lies; and refuse to cooperate with imperialist trade and sanctions wars. 10. That the accelerating war drive, economic crisis, hunger crisis, environmental crisis and more all make it abundantly clear that the need to remove the imperialist economic system is more urgent than ever. 11. That the slogans of true anti-imperialists in this time must be: Defeat for the Nato-led imperialist alliance! Victory to the resistance! No cooperation with imperialist war!
